


Under Pressure

by spacedogprincess



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Holodecks/Holosuites, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27879262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacedogprincess/pseuds/spacedogprincess
Summary: Bashir takes Garak on a date in the holodeck, in a style befitting only their unique desire to solve un-solveable puzzles.No content warnings apply to this fanfic.This is a PG ace-friendly fic, nothing sexually explicit happens, though there will be some minor PDA.
Relationships: Julian Bashir/Elim Garak
Comments: 5
Kudos: 20





	1. In Which Garak and Bashir Trade Insults

**Author's Note:**

> For those curious, This takes place roughly around stardate 49450, about a month after the episode _Our Man Bashir_

“By the way Garak, I finished that novel you gave me,” Doctor Bashir said.

Doctor Bashir and Garak were at their usual table in the Replimat for their weekly lunch date. The doctor was enjoying his cottage pie, while Garak was enjoying … food. What kind of food, Bashir could not say, but it was certainly food.

“You did,” Garak asked. “What did you think?”

“Definitely better than the last one you loaned me.”

“Really,” Garak responded, staring off to the side processing what the Doctor had just said. He had fully expected Bashir to be as critical of this work as he had been of all the others Garak had loaned him.

“What,” Bashir said. “I thought you’d be happy that I enjoyed one of the books you’ve leant me for once.”

“Well that’s just it, isn’t it. I expected you to adore _The Never Ending Sacrifice_ , but you found it dull and repetitive. You also found distaste for _Meditations on a Crimson Shadow_ , and at this point I wonder why I kept lending you books. Then I lend you _Echoes of the State_ , fully expecting another derisive review, and here you come telling me you enjoyed it!”

“Well what do you want from me Garak? Cynicism?”

“Consistency, Doctor. What I want is consistency. I want you to be predictable.”

“But my dear Garak, I thought you told me that being unpredictable was the key to winning your praise.”

At this point Garak smiled, and chuckled even a bit, admiring the doctor’s wit.

“In any case,” Bashir said, “I found it interesting, I found the characters relatable, and I thought _Echoes of the State_ was one of the better works of Cardassian literature I’ve read.”

“Well that’s good. I’ll make sure to recommend more works I find unbearable, perhaps you’ll finally enjoy something I give you.”

“I look forward to it.”

Bashir smiled, hoping to entice some reaction from Garak but Garak stared off into his food.

“Garak,” Bashir asked, tentatively trying to pull his mind back to the station.

“Yes Doctor,” Garak said, snapping back as though his mind hadn’t even drifted. “I’m perfectly fine.”

“Alright,” Bashir said, knowing when not to push the point. “Well, then if you’re fine, I’d like to ask you a different question.”

“By all means.”

“Do you remember my Secret Agent program you gate crashed last month?”

“Yes, I do.”

“I have something similar, an old form of entertainment from twenty first century Earth, and this one’s best done in a group. Felix just sent the program and, well, I thought I’d ask you if you’d like to tackle this one with me.”

“Not Chief O’Brien.”

“Miles would probably enjoy it, but it’d also be a bit, well… let’s just say based on the kind of entertainment it is, I think you’d be a much better fit for my partner.”

“Why Bashir, I’m touched. I never knew you held such a high regard for my abilities as a partner. Well when you put it that way, how can I possibly say no. Though I think people might begin talking if they see me hanging out with you too much.”

“Garak, come off it. I’m asking you because I think you’re the right kind of mind for it.”

“Well that is high praise. When, then, do you want to do this puzzle of extraordinary skill then?”

“Friday. 19:00 hours?”

“I’ll be there,” Garak said, smiling and finishing off his meal. “Well, my dear doctor, this has been enjoyable as always, but I do believe I must return to mending trousers.”

“And I to mending people.”

“Indeed. I shall see you on Friday,” Garak said, standing up and gathering his plate to recycle. “By the way,” he continued, “What is this program of yours called.”

“Why my dear Garak, if I told you that, it would ruin the surprise now wouldn’t it.”

Garak didn’t say anything. He gave the doctor one of his signature looks, topped it off with a smile, a quick nod, and walked out of the replimat and back towards his shop. Bashir chuckled to himself quietly, then took both of their plates and put them back in the replicator before heading back to the infirmary.


	2. In Which Garak Disagrees With the Premise

“Are you ready,” Bashir asked Garak as he walked into Quark’s.

“As much as I’ll ever be. Do you mind telling me exactly what I should be ready for.”

“Ever heard of an escape room, Garak?”

“No?”

“I think you’ll like this. We’re basically locked in a room for an hour, and have within that hour to get ourselves out.”

“Ah. And we do that how, exactly.”

“You’ll see,” Bashir said, smiling, and then turning to Quark who had just come up to them.

“Gentlemen, your holosuite is ready. Ninety minutes, Holosuite 2.”

“Shall we,” Bashir said, smiling coyly at Garak as he led him up the stairs and into the holosuite.

As they entered, they found themselves walking into the security office on the station, right into the brig.

“Well doctor,” Garak said, “Being locked in the brig is not exactly my idea of a good time.”

“Well the point is to get out of the brig, Garak.”

Garak looked around the small room. He reached forward to the threshold of their cell, and the force field was active. As he did, a bolian walked into the room, standing on the other side of the force field.

“Greetings, Doctor. Garak,” the bolian said. Garak didn’t recognise him.

“I’m sorry, who are you,” Garak asked

“Oh, no one important. I’m just here to inform you, that you both have been scheduled for execution tomorrow.”

“Oh there’s a twist,” Garak said.

“Garak,” Bashir hissed under his mouth. “Just go along with it.”

“With what? That the start of our story begins with an execution. The absurdity of the situation, beginning with the fact that we’d have been captured in the first place, followed by an execution is just outrageous. You expect me to believe that you and I would ever find ourselves in a position where we need to escape or our lives are sacrificed.”

“It’s a game, Garak. Reality isn’t really entering into the equation. You were fine with the Secret Agent Program.”

“Well we didn’t start that one in the brig did we?”

The bolian cleared his throat.

“Sorry to interrupt your lover’s spat, but if you let me finish, I was going to tell you how to get out of your predicament.”

“Oh, and how’s that, then” Garak asked.

“Simple. Make it from here, through the wormhole, and you’re home free.”

“And if we don’t?”

The bolian smiled. He pulled his hands out from behind his back, and tossed Dr. Bashir a tricorder through the force field.

“I believe that will give you the information you need.”

“What does he mean,” Garak asked. “What’s he talking about?”

“Good luck,” the bolian said, and then disappeared as his hologram deactivated.

Bashir opened the tricorder, and began scanning their cell..

“Doctor?”

“He’s leaking anestizine into the cell.”

“How long do we have?”

“About five minutes before we lose consciousness. We have to find a way to deactivate the force field and get out of here.”

“Ah, is that all. Computer, authorization code four-seven-alpha-black. Deactivate the force field on cell block C.”

_“Authorization code invalid. Please re-enter code.”_

“This isn’t the real station, Garak. We have to think through the problem.”

Bashir made his way to the edge of the cell block, and tore of the a wall panel revealing circuity beneath it. He started pulling out the data rods, reading them, trying to figure out the sequence to de-activate the force field.

“Do you even know what you’re doing, Doctor.”

“I’m pretty sure I do. If I just put this rod in here-“

As Bashir inserted the last rod, the panel glowed for a moment, but instead of dropping the force field like he had hoped it would, the surge fed back through the panel, shocking Bashir and sending him stumbling backwards.

“Oh let me at it,” Garak said, stepping over Bashir and approaching the panel.

With skill that betrayed his experience, Garak rearranged all the data rods in one swift motion, and a moment later the force field on the door dropped. Garak turned to Bashir, giving him a self-satisfied grin.

“Well I must say, doctor, you said we’d have an hour to complete the challenge, and we did the force field in roughly, oh three minutes. I doubt it’ll take long to get through the wormhole.”

 _“Warning,”_ came the voice of the station computer. _“Prisoner breach in the Security Office.”_

Two cardassian guards came running in, brandishing phasers at Bashir and Garak, and Garak’s face dropped into a frown.

“You were saying, Garak?”


	3. In Which Bashir Takes on a Battalion of Cardassians

“Hands up,” the cardassian security officers said.

Bashir and Garak both raised their hands, showing their lack of weapons.

“Gentleman,” Garak said, “I believe there’s been a misunderstanding here.”

“Quiet,” the security officer said.

“Garak, what are you doing,” Bashir asked under his breath.

“Improvising,” Garak said under his breath, creeping forward. “Gentlemen, I promise you, if you let us go, it will be worth your while.”

“We have strict orders not to let you out.”

“Ah, I see,” Garak continued. “Well then, I certainly can’t let you disobey orders. However, me and my friend here do need to get out, so I do appologize for this about this.”

Garak thrust himself forward, and before the security officer had a chance to react, Garak had his arm in a lock, and was fighting to disarm him. Bashir rushed forward, and attacked the other guard before he could react. Garak took down his guard with relative ease, but it took Bashir a minute longer. In the end, though, they were standing over the two unconscious bodies of their detainers, holding their disruptors.

“We have to get to the docking ring,” Bashir said.

“Hold on.” Garak pointed his disruptor down at the unconscious bodies.

“Garak, what are you doing?”

“Eliminating our trails, of course. If their friends come and revive them, that’s two more people standing in the way to our bid to freedom.”

Bashir considered this for a moment, wrestling the idea of having to kill the security officers.

“Doctor, this isn’t reality. These are holographic security guards, and even if it was real, this is exactly what we would need to do in this scenario. We’ve been over this before.”

Bashir took another moment to consider, and then raised his disruptor and shot both security guards in the chest.

“I’m getting too comfortable with the idea of killing,” Bashir said. “Come on.”

Bashir stepped over the guards and made his way out into the hallway.

“You never cease to surprise me, Doctor.”

Garak followed behind him, onto the promenade, where they found themselves surrounded by a team of cardassian soldiers.

“So doctor, what’s your plan, because I don’t think we can fight our way out of two dozen guards at once.”

“Infirmary,” Bashir said, and as soon as they started running, they were dodging disruptor blasts from the cardassian guards.

Bashir and Garak used their disruptors to plough through the guards in their way, and jumped over the ones they took down, barreling their way to the infirmary, where they ran inside.

Garak immediately turned to seal the infirmary doors, sealing them in, while Bashir ran to the computer console. The door was locked, but Garak could still hear the disruptor fire on the door outside. He made his way over to behind Bashir.

“Doctor, what exactly is your plan?”

“It’s not my plan, it’s the bolian’s. He used anestizine in the brig to try and knock us out. If the simulation has anestizine available to try and anesthetize us, then logically ... yes!”

“What have you got?”

“Anestizine controls. Now I just need to isolate it to the promenade, and ... damnit!”

“What. What is it?”

“It needs an access code to release the controls.”

“Here, let me,” Garak said, pushing the doctor aside. He entered his access code a couple of times, to no avail.

“Garak, this is a simulation. Your real codes won’t work here.”

“Then what will?”

“Step aside,” Bashir said, swiping in and entering a long access code, which immediately released the console.

“What was that,” Garak asked.

“The access code you decrypted to release the security force field.”

“You memorized it? It was barely on the screen for half a second.”

“That’s all the time I needed Garak. Now, if I release anestizine onto the Promenade, we should be good.”

Bashir pushed some buttons on the console, and then he and Garak heard a sequence of mechanical locks release, followed by a hissing noise.

“Respirators,” Bashir said, jumping up and tossing one to Garak and taking one himself. Anestizine gradually filled the Promenade, including the infirmary, and a moment later they heard a series of thuds outside the door as the disruptor fire ceased.

“I think it worked,” Bashir said. He made his way over to the infirmary door, and drew his disruptor before he opened the door.

He found himself staring down a corridor of unconscious cardassians, all slumped over.

“Garak, on the console, big red button. Hit that, it will cycle out the anestizine.”

Garak tapped the console, and a moment later the air was back to normal.

“Come on,” Bashir said, grabbing two sidearms from the cardassians and tossing one to Garak. “Let’s get to the landing pad before the reinforcements arrive.”

Bashir ran towards the turbolift. Garak smiled, watching Bashir work his intellect, and followed him.


	4. In Which Garak Has an Idea, But the Doctor Has a Better One

“Landing Pad C,” Bashir said as soon as he and Garak were in the turbolift.

“I’m sorry doctor, but wouldn’t it be a better idea if we went for somewhere other than the obvious answer? They’re going to know we’re coming.”

“How can they possibly know Garak? We need to get to a docking pad.”

“And don’t you think that when they learn there’s no security left in Ops that they may send out some security to protect all the shuttlecraft?”

“Garak, you’re overreacting. Once we get there you’ll see.”

The turbolift shuddered to a halt, and the door opened. As soon as they did, Garak and Bashir were pinned down by phaser fire.

“Ok Garak,” Bashir said through the rain of fire. “Maybe you were right.”

Bashir motioned to try and move from behind the cover of the turbolift doors, but the phaser fire was too much. Garak slammed the panel, sealing the turbolift doors.

“I think we can safely assume that we’re not making it through that way.”

“Well then Mr. Garak, do you have any other ideas?”

“Well if we could get to a computer panel, we could beam onto a shuttlecraft, but I’m guessing Ops will be covered, as well as Engineering.”

“Habitat Ring,” Bashir said, and the turbolift began moving again.

“What are you thinking?”

“If I can get you to a computer panel in crew quarters would that work?”

“Doctor, you know those panels are locked out by security. And we don’t have my access codes.”

“But the Ops panels will work?”

“Yeah, if we can get to them, but I don’t know what you’re planning...”

“Trust me. I think I have an idea.”

The turbolift halted again, and Garak and Bashir both prepared for the incoming phaser fire. But the corridor was clean, so Bashir took the lead, and a moment later they were in crew quarters.

“Doctor,” Garak said, as Bashir moved towards the replicator, “These are your quarters.”

“Yes, I’m familiar with the layout.”

Bashir tore off the access panel to the replicator, and pulled a few data rods out. Then he ran into the bedroom.

“Follow me,” Bashir said.

“Doctor, if you wanted to get me into your bedroom, you needn’t have gone through all the trouble. I would have just come if you asked.”

"You can play flirt with me another time Garak, right now we have to stay on task."

Garak sighed to himself, and moved towards the doctor.

“I swear, why did you even bring me along. You’re doing most of the heavy lifting here.”

Bashir stopped what he was doing, then looked at Garak.

“I am not.”

“Yes you are Doctor. You got us out of the cell, out of the infirmary, and you’re taking point here on ... what exactly are you doing?”

“I’m trying to anesthetize everyone in ops so we can go there and beam onto a shuttlecraft.”

“A good plan. But what do you need me for. It seems more like you wanted to spend this time showing off rather than collaborating with me.”

“Well so far Garak, your input has been to snide and jeer at every idea I come up with. If you have a plan, by all means, implement it.”

“Well I would try if you would stop moving for ten seconds. Besides, your plan won’t work. There’s a million steps between here and Ops.”

“Ok,” Bashir said, dropping the data rods. “What’s your plan then?”

“Well we have to get through the wormhole, right?”

“That’s the solution.”

“Who said anything about doing it in a shuttlecraft?”

Bashir stared at Garak for a moment, trying in any manner to parse Garak’s idea.

“Garak,” he said, “How else do you plan to get through the wormhole without a shuttlecraft? You want to fly the station through it?”

“No. We take EV suits.”

“The EV suits?”

“The mouth of the wormhole is only about 100 kilometers from the station. Between the station’s spin, the EV suits, and if we can get a worker drone, we should get enough speed to make it through the wormhole.”

“Garak, no one’s ever gone through the wormhole in an EV suit. It may not even be possible.”

“Well we’re certainly not going to get there in a shuttlecraft.”

“You asked for my idea, Doctor, I gave it to you.”

Bashir stopped to think for a moment, staring out the window at the wormhole.

“What about the station,” he asked, after a good deal of thought.

“What about it?”

“What if we flew the station into the wormhole. The shields should hold for the transit, and the station’s impulse thrusters should get us there in no time.”

“And how do you plan to do that? We’ll need Ops for that too.”

“Not exactly. We can set them to malfunction. If we mess with the inertial dampers, the station will think we’re drifting, and use the thrusters to compensate. And the dampers are a secondary system. We can access them from auxiliary engineering.”

“Doctor,” Garak said, smiling and putting his hand on the doctor’s shoulder. “That’s actually a rather good plan.”

“Well thank you. But we’re not going to execute it from here. We need to crawl through the access tunnels to get to auxiliary engineering.”

“Lead the way, doctor,” Garak said, and the doctor dashed to the access panel.

“Then again, if you wanted to get cozy in a confined space... you really should have just asked,” he said more quietly this time.


End file.
